Prince was, in a way, made from music.

His mother and father met because of music, and when they had Prince, he was given his father’s stage name. So, you could say, lyrics and melodies were in his DNA. His literal name was a manifestation of a life illuminated by a spotlight.

In high school, Prince founded a band, Grand Central, that took control of the music scene in North Minneapolis in the early ’70s. According to his biography, he honed the perfect “combination of black and white musical influences that explored the intersection between funk and rock, punk and disco, modern dance music and old-school jazz and blues,” a fusion the music world had never quite heard before.

Throughout the ’80s, Prince released both high-energy and emotionally-charged tracks that turned pop culture on its head, including “1999,” “Little Red Corvette,” and “Delirious” from his breakthrough album 1999, as well as “When Doves Cry,” “Purple Rain,” “Raspberry Beret,” “Kiss,” and “U Got The Look,” to name just a few of the chart-toppers that dominated the decade and made listeners feel alive. 

In addition to writing his own hits, “The Purple One” also penned a slew of successful tunes for other artists, many of which became their signature songs.

So, let’s slip into a pair of heels (the kind you’d find in a second-hand store) and dance outside Prince’s catalog to discover the hit songs he wrote for others.

1. “Manic Monday” The Bangles
2. “Nothing Compares 2 U” Sinead O’ Connor
3. “How Come You Don’t Call Me” Alicia Keys
4. “Stand Back” Stevie Nicks
5. “Sugar Walls” Sheena Easton
6. “I Feel for You” Chaka Khan
7. “Jungle Love” The Time

“Manic Monday” The Bangles

While filling his own records with timeless tracks, Prince also wrote The Bangles’ “Manic Monday” under the pseudonym Christopher. This upbeat track peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1986 and greatly contributed to the group’s rising stardom.

Possibly the most impressive aspect of this track is Prince’s ability to capture what it’s like working a 9-to-5 without ever having worked an office job. 

“Nothing Compares 2 U” Sinead O’ Connor

In 1985, Prince released “Nothing Compares 2 U” with The Family, a band he formed in 1984 as a “side project,” per Rolling Stone. Five years later, Irish artist Sinéad O’Connor switched up the lyrics and dedicated the track to her deceased mother, who passed away in 1985, when Prince first put out the song.

Commenting on the cover, Prince said: “I love it, it’s great! I look for cosmic meaning in everything. I think we just took that song as far as we could, then someone else was supposed to come along and pick it up.”

O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1990, and was her most popular release.

“How Come You Don’t Call Me” Alicia Keys

Many say that Prince’s creative genius was ahead of its time. His music felt new and futuristic, and that was accentuated in his track “1999,” a song he wrote about the possibility of nuclear war and the end of the millennium. The lyrics basically encouraged people to party and live life to the fullest, as if the world could end tomorrow.

The B-Side to this track was “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore,” which Alicia Keys covered in 2001 and introduced to the Billboard Hot 100 chart nearly two decades after its initial release. Keys, just 19 at the time, added some new lyrics to the track and really made it her own. Three years later, the songstress would go on to induct Prince into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“Stand Back” Stevie Nicks

Okay, so Prince didn’t actually write Stevie Nicks’ “Stand Back,” but as the icon herself claims, he inspired it. According to Nicks, she listened to “Little Red Corvette” on the way to her honeymoon and wrote “Stand Back” as a result.

When she told Prince this story, he came into the studio and, in true Prince fashion, wowed Nicks with his skills.

“He spoiled me for every band I’ve ever had because nobody can exactly recreate – not even with two piano players – what Prince did all by his little self,” she explained to Timothy White.

“Sugar Walls” Sheena Easton

When Sheena Easton met Prince in the ’80s, she thought he was “quiet and shy,” but the song they would collaborate on in 1985 was anything but. In fact, listeners described the lyrics as provocative and, in the words of Tipper Gore’s Parents’ Music Resource Council, “filthy.” 

“Filthy” or not, “Sugar House,” produced by Alexander Nevermind (another one of Prince’s pseudonyms), reached No. 9 on the charts. A few years later, the duo would collaborate again, this time on Prince’s “U Got The Look,” which hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“I Feel for You” Chaka Khan

Many of Prince’s songs were funk-filled, including one he wrote for his alleged “crush,” Patrice Rushen, in the late ’70s. “I Feel for You” was first released on his self-titled album in 1979 and given another life in 1984 thanks to Chaka Khan. Supposedly, Chaka Khan asked Prince to sing on her version, but he was busy producing Purple Rain at the time.

The track became the most popular song of her entire career, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and topping the R&B charts. Originally written by Prince, the song earned Khan a Grammy and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

“Jungle Love” The Time

Prince actually founded the group The Time, who would go on to release the Prince-penned hit “Jungle Love” in 1984. The dance track (complete with animal noises) peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was only one of a few tunes he created with The Time. 

Prince also helped produce the band’s biggest hit, “Jerk Out” in 1990, which hit No. 9 on the charts. Commenting on Prince’s songwriting skills, band member Jimmy Jam told Billboard: “Back in those days, Prince would come in with a lot of the ideas… and then we’d flesh them out. It was always like a jam session.”

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